The number of active COVID-19 cases in London and Middlesex County has fallen below 50 for the first time this month as the region's daily case count stayed in the single-digits for the past three days.
The Middlesex London Health Unit reported three new infections on Monday, five on Sunday, and seven on Saturday. The three days worth of data comes as the health unit no longer reports COVID-19 figures over the weekend. The daily case count has remained below ten for the majority of the month, with only five days in July posting double-digit increases.
The area’s total case count stands at 12,744 since the pandemic began.
The number of resolved cases in the city and county is up by 22 to 12,468. Currently, there are 47 active cases in the region. The active case count has not been below 50 since the end of June.
There has not been a COVID-19 related death locally since July 15, leaving the death toll unchanged at 229.
There were no additional cases involving variants of concern identified in the region since Friday, leaving the total at 3,562. The Alpha B.1.1.7 variant, which originated in the U.K., accounts for 3,379 of the cases. There are 104 cases of the Gamma P.1. variant from Brazil, two cases identified as the Beta B.1.351 variant from South Africa, and 73 cases of the B.1.617 variant that originated in India. There are 205 cases that have tested positive for a mutation.
The London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC) has declared a COVID-19 outbreak at Victoria Hospital's B7-200 Adult Inpatient Mental Health unit. Fewer than five cases are linked to the unit, according to the LHSC. The hospital network has a total of six inpatients with COVID-19. Of those in hospital with the virus, fewer than five are in the intensive care unit. Currently, there are no hospital employees who have tested positive for COVID-19.
Four more walk-in, pop-up vaccination clinics are planned this week for people who still need either their first or second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. The health unit run clinics are for anyone aged 12 or older. The first will be held Monday at North Middlesex District High School in Parkhill. On Tuesday, a clinic will be held at Montcalm Secondary School at 1350 Highbury Ave. in London, that will be followed by one Wednesday at Sir Fredrick Banting Secondary School at 125 Sherwood Forest Square in London, and another Thursday at École secondaire catholique Monseigneur Bruyère at 920 Huron St. All four clinics will run from 1:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. The Middlesex London Paramedic Service will also hold a pop-up clinic for adults 18 and older from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Tuesday at the Southwest Middlesex Fire Station in Glencoe and another on Wednesday at the Thorndale Community Centre in Thorndale. To see the full list of pop-up vaccination clinics in London and Middlesex County click here.
The number of new COVID-19 cases confirmed in Elgin and Oxford counties was just three on Monday. That number includes infections identified both Saturday and Sunday, as Southwestern Public Health does not update its COVID-19 dashboard on weekends. The latest cases bring the two counties total case count to 3,935. There were no additional deaths recorded over the past three days, leaving the death toll unchanged at 84. There are currently no active institutional outbreaks locally. The health unit said the total number of resolved cases in the area is 3,837, leaving 14 known active cases. As of Sunday, 78.2 per cent of all people in the two counties 12 and older have received at least one dose of the vaccine, 59.7 per cent have been given both shots.
Provincially, daily cases fell to the lowest number recorded in two weeks.
Public health officials reported 119 new infections on Monday. That is down from 172 on Sunday, 176 on Saturday, and 190 on Friday. Ontario has now seen 18 consecutive days with daily case counts below 200.
Regions with the most new cases over the past 24 hours were Toronto with 22, Hamilton with 15, and Waterloo Region with 14.
The province’s total case count since the start of the pandemic now sits at 549,447.
According to the province’s daily epidemiologic summary, Ontario identified 19 more cases of the B.1.1.7. variant, or Alpha as it is known, since the previous day for a total of 145,405. There were no additional cases of the P.1 variant, Gamma, leaving the total unchanged at 5,142, and the number of new cases of the B.1.351 variant, Beta, was also unchanged for a total of 1,492. There were three more cases identified as the B.1.617 (Delta) variant, originally found in India, increasing the total to 3,916.
There were three additional COVID-19 related deaths reported over the past 24 hours, to bring the province’s death toll to 9,316.
At hospitals in Ontario, there are 96 patients with COVID-19. That is up eight from the previous day. The total number of patients in the intensive care unit is up by four to 131 and the number of patients on ventilators is down by three to 95. ICU numbers include patients who previously tested positive for COVID-19 but have since recovered and remain due to other complications.
The number of resolved cases rose by 137 to 538,702. There are currently 1,429 known active cases of the virus in Ontario, up from 1,355 a week ago.
In the last 24 hour period, more than 11,900 COVID-19 tests were processed. Ontario’s current positivity rate sits at 1 per cent.
The province has administered 19,018,393 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, as of Sunday night, that includes 65,920 doses administered over the past 24 hours. There have been more than 8.6 million people in Ontario who have received their second dose of the vaccine to be considered fully inoculated.